Impressions

[Pix]

#4335

Lost Eden should be my ideal sort of DGC pick, being an adventure game I’ve never played before but have had sat on a shelf for years and meant to get around to. I’ve been playing it this morning, and am slightly surprised to have reached the end already. I wouldn’t say it’s exactly a short game as such, but there was no point at which I wasn’t moving forward. This is a definite problem in an adventure game. I’m struggling to come up with anything that I would describe as an actual puzzle. There was an annoying maze section (thankfully small), but the game was more like a series of tasks, most of which are spelled out to you. The inventory and locations are small enough that trial and error got me through quickly if a bit of moon logic was needed.

It seems to be a game that would have relied on it’s atmosphere and presentation at the time, which is a lot less effective 25 years later. It’s certainly quirky and a bit strange all round. It reminds me a whole lot of Cryo’s earlier Dune but that expanded out into a strategy game and felt much more rounded than this. I regard Dune as something of a classic. Lost Eden would probably be better suited to a younger audience which may well have been the intention. I think I’d need to have played it at the time to hold it in any particular regard but it was fun enough for a few hours. Glad to have tried it out at last anyway – I’ll see if I can find a few reviews as I’m very curious what people thought of it back then.

[Shattered]

#4360

I fired it up this afternoon for an hour without knowing a thing about this game. Somehow it has completely escaped my notice.

Just like Gateway, I came in with no expectations and similarly I could tell I was starting something extremely interesting.

The very first thing I noticed was this strange sounds coming out of my PC. The music caught me completely off guard, but it sounds really unique and cool.

Then I kept right clicking on the first screen to get a description and it changed to a view of a person. I was so confused so I clicked on the person and it brought up a save/load menu. Now that I understand the controls, I get it.

Really excited to see where the story goes, it’s really grabbed me so far. I have no idea if this is a game where I can die or lock myself out of finishing, but I’m hoping the latter is not the case. I can tolerate saving often to avoid death, but I have no patience for games where I’m stuck at a puzzle and it’s because I didn’t pick something up earlier and I can’t go back and get it.

[TigerQuoll]

#4361

My better half is heading away for a week later this month, so I think I’m going to take a couple of nights off, and settle down to this game with a few tasty beers and the volume turned up!
As long as I’m prepared for the fact that it’s light on gameplay, I don’t think that will bother me. I can happily immerse myself in it if the music and story are as good as they’re supposed to be!

[Pix]

#4362

The music is great throughout, same composer as the amazing Dune soundtrack, Stephane Picq. The story I was less convinced by, certainly not up with the likes of Gateway for me. It did enough to keep me interested.

You can die, but there is an autosave every time you travel so it shouldn’t be a big deal. I didn’t find any dead ends except the inventory system appears slightly broken in that I couldn’t find any way to scroll it. Once you get more items than you can see on screen at once, you can’t get to them all! It’s possible to pick up loads of the same items as well and fill up your item slots so I’d guess you might be able to dead-end this way. I made sure not to hoard once I realised what was going on.

[firefyte]

#4367

I vaguely remember this game, but my first reaction was ‘give Myst it’s engine back’.

It is a bit vague with the ‘you maybe can click here’ spinning box, but after my first game over a few minutes in, I think I’ll play a bit more and see how it feels.

[firefyte]

#4369

Ok, I’m done.

Besides the slightly unexpected deaths, I made it through with 4 game overs along the way.

The speech is decent, music is nice, but otherwise it feels a bit repetitive in some places.
The inventory scrolling was tricky, but it does give you the tools to manage your inventory.

It was a nice 5-6h, remember to take a long look at the world map.

If you need a hint, ask on irc 🙂

[Shattered]

#4375

*minor spoilers*
Finished as well. What a great game to play for the club. Not too long, not frustratingly difficult, but still engaging throughout.

The actions for each territory were very repetitive but they were easy enough that I didn’t mind that much. I thought the worst part of the game was the maze, but I got in and out of it pretty quickly without needing to map it so it wasn’t too terrible.

Loved the soundtrack. The graphics were a bit dated but it was still interesting to watch. When my kids were with me, they yelled at me if I skipped a transition scene even if we’d seen it a dozen times already.

Funny you mentioned Myst, firefyte. My first impression was that it was going to be a lot like Myst based on moving around the first free screens. But it was more like an interactive movie than a head scratching puzzler.

Hoping we’ll play Dune some day if it’s anything like this.

[Tijn]

#4377

So cool so many of you have managed to play through the whole thing already. I’m making good progress, but haven’t reached the end yet.

The gameplay is way more repetitive than what I would have guessed. It’s honestly a bit jarring to see the same “puzzle” repeated several times.

It’s hard to say I’m really enjoying the game, but am I intrigued by it. I like most of the characters, although the writing and voice acting seems a bit amateurish at times. However the world is certainly quite nice and atmospheric, so all in all the game still offers a nice place to be in, which makes up for a lot imho.

[TigerQuoll]

#4382

My first impressions:
I settled down with a tasty beer as promised and gave this game a good hour or so on my Pentium I machine.
So, I think I’m glad I’ve gone in with the expectations I did. I’m approaching it more as an interactive movie, and I’m finding myself quite immersed.
There were a couple of spots so far where the writing was so bad I nearly quit, but I pushed through and I’m glad I did. (I’ve just finished the first section in the citadel)
The music, as mentioned, is absolutely awesome. Although I’m hoping there will be more than the three or four tracks I’ve heard so far in the rest of the game.
The setting and story are intriguing, and I appreciate the experimentation the developers have done with the mechanics. There’s some great ideas in there, albeit a bit rough around the edges.
I’m giving it a rest for tonight, but I’ll definitely give it another go tomorrow.

[Jozxyqk]

#4385

Going to play it this weekend. Back when releasing on cd was an effective copy protection I borrowed this game. The things I remember most are the excellent music and that it got a bit repetitive.

I am dreading to see how well/bad it holds up nowadays, tbh.

[Tijn]

#4391

I’m making good progress, but I’m not quite there yet. I just have to write something down though, because this game is rubbing me the wrong way a bit just now.

Spoiler ahead:

So I just spoke with the Aquasarus who gave me access to the Valley of Despair, which was supposedly guarded by Tyrann and thus lead to a big battle. I can’t believe they just skipped over that entirely! This game has a pretty epic story, but instead of letting you experience that, they’re letting you deliver apples and bird nests all over the place… and then when things get really interesting it’s just a cutscene! Gah!

[Tijn]

#4392

Ok, completed it just now. What an odd game. On paper it checks a lot of boxes: cool setting, good graphics, nice music, interesting characters, full voice acting. The story in itself is also not the worst, although perhaps a bit cliché. And even if the writing and acting is a bit amateurish at times, I’ve definitely seen worse.

So that should make a pretty solid point & click adventure game then, right? Well… not really. I’m not even sure what the cause is tbh, but the gameplay really lacks something. I know a lot of point & click adventure games are essentially just a matter of walking around and combining inventory items, but I’ve never minded that as much as in this game.

Maybe it’s the repetitive nature that makes playing it feel like a drag, at least to me. Actions also lack weight to them. It’s hard to really care about items when they’re just randomly scattered across the world and keep spawning when you run out.

Figuring out what to do can be fun, but then having to repeat it 5 or 6 times is something I’ve not seen in many other adventure games.

That said, the atmosphere is very unique and I do like the variety in the characters. The audiovisual presentation is nice enough and must have been pretty impressive back in the mid 90s when this came out. It’s fine as an interactive movie, it’s just not a whole lot of fun to actually play haha.

[TigerQuoll]

#4395

I can see what you mean tijn.
I haven’t quite finished it myself yet, but it feels like the developers thought as long as they got great music, great (for the time) graphics, an interesting setting, a decent engine and a bunch of voice actors, the game would just automatically turn out awesome. No need to put effort into writing or making the gameplay engaging – if we just tie all these other elements together in the laziest way we can think of the game can’t help but be great!

I’m just pretending like it’s an interactive movie, and despite the awkward writing and threadbare and contrived gameplay constantly trying their hardest to break my immersion, I am finding myself enjoying it. Mainly for the music and atmosphere.

[Jozxyqk]

#4398

**Spoilers**

Just finished it, and I can see now why I quickly forgot the story and puzzles of the game.

Surprisingly, the technical aspects are the smallest problem with this game – they got the aesthetics down pat. After a few fmv I didn’t even notice the “skating dinos”.

My biggest beef with Lost Eden can best be surmised by simply observing that Moorkus Rex’s end perfectly describes the way in which this game’s characters, story and puzzles disappointed me.